WA2K Radio is now on the air

hbg, the song is my favorite by Neil, and I think it may have had to do with John Lennon of the Beatles, but not certain. Good to hear that he has maintained a sense of humor, right?

In thinking of the new immigration period in American history, I recall that most Italian emigres only came to make money and return home. They were referred to as "birds of passage".

Remembering them through Longfellow's poem, folks.

Birds Of Passage


Black shadows fall
From the lindens tall,
That lift aloft their massive wall
Against the southern sky;

And from the realms
Of the shadowy elms
A tide-like darkness overwhelm
The fields that round us lie.

But the night is fair,
And everywhere
A warm, soft vapor fills the air,
And distant sounds seem near;

And above, in the light
Of the star-lit night,
Swift birds of passage wing their flight
Through the dewy atmosphere.

I hear the beat
Of their pinions fleet,
As from the land of snow and sleet
They seek a southern lea.

I hear the cry
Of their voices high
Falling dreamily through the sky,
But their forms I cannot see.

Oh, say not so!
Those sounds that flow
In murmurs of delight and woe
Come not from wings of birds.

They are the throngs
Of the poet's songs,
Murmurs of pleasures, and pains, and wrongs,
The sound of winged words.

This is the cry
Of souls, that high
On toiling, beating pinions, fly,
Seeking a warmer clime.

From their distant flight
Through realms of light
It falls into our world of night,
With the murmuring sound of rhyme.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files
We'd like to help you learn to help yourself
Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes
Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes
Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes
It's a little secret, just the Robinsons' affair
[Mrs. Robinson lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com]

Most of all, you've got to hide it from the kids

Coo, coo, ca-choo, Mrs Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon
Going to the candidates debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Ev'ry way you look at it, you lose

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo)
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

I guess, edgar, Mrs. Robinson will always be the one with which Anne Bancroft will be identified.

Well, listeners, I found this rather strange one by Paul Simon, and he did write and sing some different things after he and Simon broke up.

Wonder what it means.

Tell us all a story
About how it used to be
Make it up and write it down
Just like history
About goldilocks and the three bears
Nature in the cross hairs
And how we all ascended
From the deep green sea
When it's not too hot
Not too cold
Not too meek
Not too bold
When it's just right and you have sunlight
Then we're home,
Finally home
Home in the land of the homeless
Finally home

Oh what are we going to do
I never did a thing to you
Time peaceful as a hurricane eve
Peaceful as a hurricane eye

A history of whispers
A shadow of a horse
Faces painted black in sorrow and remorse
White cloud, black crow
Crucifix and arrow
The oldest silence speaks the loudest
Under the deep green sea

When speech becomes a crime
Silence leads the spirit
Over the bridge of time

Over the bridge of time
I'm walking with my family
And the road begins to climb
And it's oh lord how we going to pray
With crazy angel voices
All night
Until it's a new day

Peaceful as a hurricane
Peaceful as a hurricane
Peaceful as a hurricane eye
Peaceful as a hurricane
Peaceful as a hurricane
Peaceful as a hurricane eye
Peaceful as a hurricane eye

You want to be a leader?
You want to change the game?
Turn your back on money
Walk away from fame
You want to be a missionary?
Got that missionary zeal?
Let a stranger change your life
How does it make you feel?
You want to be a writer
But you don't know how or when
Find a quiet place
Use a humble pen

You want to talk talk talk about it
All night squawk about
The ocean and the atmosphere
Well i've been away for a long time
And it looks like a mess around here
I'll be away for a long time
So here's how the story goes
There was an old woman
Who lived in a shoe
She was baking a cinnamon pie
She fell asleep in a washing machine
Woke up in a hurricane eye

Well, time for me to say goodnight, but just like The Harlowes, I was looking for one thing and found something much better (serendipity)

Dylan Thomas

FERN HILL

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.

And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace.

Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

From Letty with love

There you go and baby here am I
Well you left me here so I could sit and cry
Golly gee what have you done to me
Well I guess it doesn't matter anymore

Do you remember baby last September
How you held me tight each and every night
Oh baby how you drove me crazy
But I guess it doesn't matter any more

BRIDGE:
There's no use in me a-cryin'
I've done everything and now I'm sick of trying
I've thrown away my nights, wasted all my days over you

Now you go your way baby and I'll go mine
Now and forever 'till the end of time
And I'll find somebody new and baby
We'll say we're through and you won't matter any more

REPEAT BRIDGE
REPEAT LAST VERSE

It Doesn't Matter Anymore
(the song he had on the charts when he died)
Buddy Holly

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

edgar, "thrown away all my nights and wasted all my days" is odd when looking at Buddy Holly in retrospect, but that's always the way it is, Texas. We make today fit into yesterday, right?

Before I play the morning song, I did find this out about that gypsy melody.

play gypsies, dance gypsies, sing while you may
We're gypsies one and all......
They were written by Kalman for
the operetta Countess Maritza. still cannot
find the entire song, however.

From Gordon Lightfoot

In the early mornin' rain
With a dollar in my hand
And an aching in my heart
And my -pockets full of sand
I'm a long ways from home
And I missed my loved one so
In the early mornin' rain
With no place to go

Out on runway number nine
Big 707 set to go
Well I'm out here on the grass
Where the pavement never grows
Where the liquor tasted good
And the women all were fast
There she goes my friend
She's rolling out at last

Hear the mighty engines roar
See the silver wing on high
She's away and westward bound
For above the clouds she flies
Where the mornin' rain don't fall
And the sun always shines
She'll be flying over my home
In about three hours time

This ol' airport's got me down
It's no earthly good to me
'Cause I?m stuck here on the ground
Cold and drunk as I might be
Can't jump a jet plane
Like you can a freight train
So I best be on my way
In the early mornin' rain
So I best be on my way
In the early mornin' rain
So I best be on my way
In the early mornin' rain

That song's a cue for the flip side of that Buddy Holly record.

Raining in My Heart

The sun is out
The sky is blue
There's not a cloud to spoil the view
But it's raining
Raining in my heart

The weather man says clear today
He doesn't know you've gone away
And it's raining
Raining in my heart

Oh misery misery
What's gonna become of me
I tell my blues they musn't show
But soon these tears are bound to flow
Cause it's raining
Raining in my heart

Raining in my heart

"I tell my blues; they musn't show". Sorta reminds me of Lady Day. I just read that she was arrested for heroin possession as she lay dying.

Just when we think that the world has gotten worse, we look over our shoulder and see what once was, edgar.

The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before
It always leads me here
Leads me to your door

The wild and windy night
That the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day
Why leave me standing here
Let me know the way

Many times I've been alone
And many times I've cried
Anyway you'll never know
The many ways I've tried

And still they lead me back
To the long, winding road
You left me standing here
A long, long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here
Lead me to you door

Many times I've been alone
And many times I've cried
Anyway you'll never know
The many ways I've tried

But still they lead me back
To the long, winding road
You left me standing here
A long, long time ago
Don't keep me waiting here (Don't keep me wait)
Lead me to you door
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

McCartney originally wrote the song at his farm in Scotland, inspired by the growing tension between The Beatles at the time. McCartney said later: "I just sat down at my piano in Scotland, started playing and came up with that song, imagining it was going to be done by someone like Ray Charles. I have always found inspiration in the calm beauty of Scotland and again it proved the place where I found inspiration (Ray Charles covering this song can be heard on the posthumously-released 2006 album Ray Sings, Basie Swings.)
Although McCartney was the sole writer of the song, like all Beatles songs written by him or John Lennon, it would be credited to "Lennon/McCartney" by long-standing agreement.

Jack Haley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jack Haley (August 10, 1898 - June 6, 1979)--born John Joseph Haley, Jr.--was an American film actor best known for his portrayal of the Tin Man and farmworker Hickory in The Wizard of Oz.

Haley starred in vaudeville as a song-and-dance comedian. One of his closest friends was fellow vaudeville alumnus Fred Allen, who would frequently mention "Mr. Jacob Haley of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts" on the air.

In the early 1930s Haley starred in comedy shorts for Vitaphone in Brooklyn, New York. His wide-eyed, good-natured expression landed him supporting roles in musical features (like the Shirley Temple vehicle Poor Little Rich Girl , the Frank Sinatra vehicle Higher and Higher, and the Irving Berlin musical Alexander's Ragtime Band).

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hired Haley for The Wizard of Oz after another song-and-dance comic, Buddy Ebsen, who was originally set to play the Tin Man, had a near-fatal reaction from inhaling the aluminum dust makeup. The makeup was switched to a paste, to avoid risking the same reaction by Haley. (The new makeup did cause an eye infection which caused Haley to miss four days of filming, but he received treatment in time to prevent permanent damage. Incidentally, Buddy Ebsen, 10 years younger than Haley, outlived him by 24 years.[1])

Haley did not take to the makeup or to the discomfort of the costume very kindly. When being interviewed about the film years later, he remarked that many people had commented that making the film must have been fun. Haley's reply: "Like hell it was; it was work!"

Haley's natural voice (which he used for the "Hickory" character) was moderately gruff. For the Tin Man, he spoke more softly, a la "Mr. Rogers", which he later said was the tone of voice he used when reading stories to his children.

Haley returned to musical comedies in the 1940s. Most of his '40s work was for RKO Radio Pictures; he surrendered the job in 1947 when he refused to appear in a remake of RKO's old story property "Seven Keys to Baldpate" (Phillip Terry took the role).

He married Florence McFadden on February 25, 1921, and they remained married until his death. Flo Haley opened a successful beauty shop and counted many show people among her customers. (The establishment became known informally as "Flo Haley's House of Correction.")

The couple had one son, Jack Haley Jr. (later a successful film producer) and one daughter, Gloria.[2] Jack Jr. married Liza Minnelli, daughter of his father's Oz co-star Judy Garland, briefly in the 1970s.

In 1972, Haley made his daughter, Gloria, the sole owner of his written memoirs. In 1978, she published them in the form of the hardcover book Heart of the Tin Man.

Haley died of a heart attack on June 6, 1979 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 80. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California.[3]

Norma Shearer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name Edith Norma Shearer
Born August 10, 1902
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died June 12, 1983, age 80
Woodland Hills, California
Years active 1920 - 1942
Spouse(s) Irving Thalberg (1927-1936)
Martin Arrougé (1942-1983)
[show]Awards
Academy Awards

Best Actress
1930 The Divorcee

Edith Norma Shearer (August 10, 1902 (some sources indicate 1900) - June 12, 1983) was an Academy Award-winning Canadian-born Hollywood actress.

Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in the world from the 1920s until her retirement in 1942. Her early films cast her as the girl-next-door, but after her 1930 film The Divorcee she played sexually liberated women in sophisticated contemporary comedies and dramas, as well as several historical and period films. Strikingly beautiful in the face, Shearer played a wide variety of roles that most admired actresses could only dream about.





Early life and career

Born in Montreal, Quebec, she was the daughter of a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman Andrew Shearer and actress Edith Shearer. She would describe her childhood as "a pleasant dream" [citation needed] until the age of 16 when the success of her father's business fell through. Edith then took herself, Norma, and daughter Athole to New York to find jobs in the entertainment industry. One of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood, she began her career as a fashion model and film extra in 1920, but later that year she received her first supporting part in The Stealers, attracted the attention of a young producer named Irving Thalberg. A series of small films followed, but Norma Shearer won praise from critics for her small, forgettable films of that era. Then in 1924 Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios was established, and there Shearer was placed under contract by Thalberg.


Stardom

After she signed to MGM, Norma Shearer became a star in her own right. He Who Gets Slapped, Lady of the Night, (1925) and His Secretary, all helped her become one of Hollywood's top five box office stars from 1925 until 1930, after which the number of films she made a year dropped. Many of her silent films are considered lost. The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) marked Shearer's first prestige production, and the film scored well with critics and audiences. Later that year, she married Irving Thalberg, with whom she would later have two children.

Despite great success in her early talking films, The Trial of Mary Dugan, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, and Their Own Desire (all 1929), Shearer knew the public would soon tire of her "good girl" image, and took the advice of friend and costar Ramon Novarro to visit to an unknown photographer named George Hurrell. There she took a series of sexy portraits which convinced her husband that she could play the lead in MGM's racy new film, The Divorcee (1930). Shearer won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her work, and a series of highly successful pre-code films followed. Shearer was considered one of Hollywood's most versatile actresses, playing sexy roles in films like A Free Soul (1931), and was acclaimed for her dramatic abilities in such films as the period drama Smilin' Through (1932), which co-starred Fredric March, and was one of the most successful films of the year. After the enforcement of the production code in 1934, Shearer moved into more period dramas. The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) was one of her most successful period dramas. The production costs of Romeo and Juliet (1936) and Marie Antoinette (1938) proved too great for a profit at the box office, though their elaborate sets and costumes helped make the films popular with audiences.


The actress

Shearer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress on six occasions, winning for her role in The Divorcee in 1930. This was one of a series of roles Shearer played in sophisticated yet racy pre-Code dramas. She was nominated the same year for her role in Their Own Desire, in 1931 for her role in A Free Soul, in 1934 for The Barretts of Wimpole Street, in 1936 for Romeo and Juliet, and in 1938 for Marie Antoinette which was reportedly her favorite role. Marion Davies later recalled that Shearer came to a party at San Simeon in her costume, which required removing the door so she could enter, and four chairs so she could sit at the table.

Shearer was photographed with great care because she had a lazy eye, however George Hurrell, who remained one of her favorite photographers, compensated by photographing her looking upwards. [1] Her earlier successful roles were generally those of "modern" sexually uninhibited women. She was highly regarded for her performances that ranged from comedy to tragedy, but later in her career she preferred to play noble characters, and after Thalberg's death was well received in more unusual roles such as Idiot's Delight (1939), her last of three films with Clark Gable.

The Women followed and was a substantial success, but a group of younger actresses, along with Shearer's long time rival Joan Crawford, received the best reviews. Shearer's marriage to Thalberg gave her a degree of power in Hollywood that was resented by rivals such as Crawford who complained that Shearer would always be offered the best roles and best conditions, with the comment, "After all, she's sleeping with the boss." [citation needed] Shearer and Crawford acted only once together, as bitter rivals in The Women. Critics praised the suspenseful atmosphere in Shearer's next film, Escape (1940). The movie centered around a Nazi officer's mistress who helps an American free his mother from a concentration camp. With increasing interest of the war in Europe, the film performed well at the box office, but by this time Shearer had lost interest in her career. She turned down the leading roles in Gone with the Wind (1939), Mrs. Miniver (1942), and Now, Voyager (1942). Shearer later starred in two romantic comedies which did little for her, We Were Dancing and Her Cardboard Lover (both 1942). Shearer later spoke of her regret at ending her career, and expressed a desire to return to films.


Later life

After Thalberg's death, Shearer embarked on romances with actors George Raft and James Stewart, among others.

She retired from acting in 1942 after public indifference to her last few films, and married Martin Arrougé, a ski instructor twenty years her junior. Confounding the skeptics, they were still happily married at the time of her death (from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease) at 80 or 82 years old, although in her declining years she reportedly called Martin "Irving".

Shearer has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6636 Hollywood Boulevard. She is entombed in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in a crypt marked Norma Shearer Arrouge, along with her first husband Irving Thalberg. Her friend Jean Harlow is in the crypt next door. Thalberg's crypt was engraved "My Sweetheart Forever" by Shearer.

Noah Beery, Jr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Noah Lindsey Beery (August 10, 1913 - November 1, 1994), known professionally as Noah Beery, Jr. or just Noah Beery, was an American actor specializing in warm, friendly character parts similar to the ones played by his legendary uncle Wallace Beery, although Noah Beery, Jr., unlike his uncle, seldom broke away from playing supporting roles. His father, Noah Nicholas Beery (known professionally as Noah Beery or Noah Beery, Sr.), enjoyed a similarly lengthy film career as a supporting actor. In the 1970s, he was best known as James Garner's uptight and concerned father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford on the television show, The Rockford Files.


He was born in New York City, New York where his father was working as a stage actor. The family moved to California in 1915 when his father began acting in motion pictures. After attending school in Los Angeles, they moved to a ranch in the San Fernando Valley, a style of living he would maintain for the rest of his life.

At the age of seven, he appeared with his father in The Mark of Zorro and like his father, who immediately began billing himself as "Noah Beery, Sr.," he went on to become a respected character actor. His uncle, Oscar-winning screen phenomenon Wallace Beery, became the world's highest-paid actor by 1932, and while neither Noah nor his father ever approached that level, both had extremely long and memorable film careers. All three acting Beerys physically resembled each other rather closely, but Noah, Jr. lacked a thrillingly powerful voice like his father's and uncle's (which is ironic, since both older Beerys made major careers as supporting actors in silent movies).

Noah Beery, Jr. appeared in dozens of films, including 20 Mule Team with his uncle and Red River with John Wayne, but is best known for his role as Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, the father of James Rockford, James Garner's character on the popular television series The Rockford Files (1974-1980). His television work also included the role of a clown in Circus Boy with Mickey Dolenz in the mid 1950s.

Noah Beery, Jr. died in 1994 in Tehachapi, California of a cerebral thrombosis and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California with his father and uncle.

Rhonda Fleming
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Rhonda Fleming (born August 10, 1923), nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor", is an American actress. Born in Hollywood, California as Marilyn Louis, Fleming made over forty films, mostly in the forties and fifties. Her most recent film was Waiting for the Wind (1990).

In 1945, Fleming graduated from Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California.

After appearing uncredited in a few films, she began getting bigger roles starting with top featured roles in David O. Selznick's Spellbound (1945), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and another classic thriller The Spiral Staircase (1946). She then co-starred with Bing Crosby in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949) based on a book by Mark Twain. Among her most famous movies are: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), While the City Sleeps (1956) and The Big Circus (1959). In 1953, she starred in Serpent of the Nile and became one of a number of leading Hollywood actresses to play the legendary Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra.

Although Rhonda Fleming was a very fine singer, this aspect of her talent was largely ignored by producers and by the public at large. She had sung with Bing Crosby in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and her 78rpm Decca recording of "When Is Sometime" from that film was well received. In 1958, she recorded her only full album as a singer, simply entitled "Rhonda". It was a delightful album, blending then current songs like "Around The World" with standards like "Love Me Or Leave Me" and "I've Got You Under My Skin". Unfortunately, it wasn't promoted very well and the record sold poorly. Today, it is a collectible.

In retirement she has worked for charities, especially in the field of cancer care, and served on the committees of many related bodies. In 1991 she and her late husband, Ted Mann, set up the Rhonda Fleming Mann Clinic For Women's Comprehensive Care at the UCLA Medical Center. Fleming has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Eddie Fisher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Background information

Birth name Edwin John Fisher
Born August 10, 1928, South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Genre(s) Traditional Pop
Years active 1948-1984
Label(s) RCA Victor, Ramrod, Dot

Eddie Fisher (born Edwin John Fisher, August 10, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American singer and entertainer.





Life and career

Eddie Fisher is the fourth of seven children born to Joseph Fisher and Kate Winokur, who were Russian-Jewish immigrants. His father's surname was originally Fisch, but was anglicised to Fisher upon entry to the United States.

To his family, Fisher was always called "Sonny Boy" or "Sonny". It was known at an early age that he had talent as a vocalist and he started singing in numerous amateur contests, which he usually won. He sang on the radio in high school and was later on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, a popular radio show which moved to television. By 1946, Fisher was crooning with the bands of Buddy Morrow and Charlie Ventura. He was heard in 1949 by Eddie Cantor at Grossinger's Resort in the Borscht Belt. After performing on Cantor's radio show he was an instant hit and gained nationwide exposure. He was then signed to a contract with RCA Victor.

Fisher was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951, sent to Texas for basic training, and served a year in Korea. From 1952 to 1953, he was the official vocal soloist for The United States Army Band (Pershing's Own) and a tenor section member in the United States Army Band Chorus (an element of Pershing's Own) in Washington, D.C. The photos of him in uniform during his time in the service did not hurt his civilian career. After his discharge, he became even more popular singing in top nightclubs. He also had a variety television series, Coke Time with Eddie Fisher (NBC) (1953 - 1957), appeared on Perry Como's show, The Chesterfield Supper Club and the George Gobel Show, and starred in another series, The Eddie Fisher Show (NBC) (1957 - 1959).

A pre-Rock and Roll vocalist, Fisher's strong and melodious tenor made him a teen idol and one of the most popular singers of the 1950s. He had seventeen songs in the Top 10 on the music charts between 1950 and 1956 and thirty-five in the Top 40.

In 1956, Fisher costarred with then-wife Debbie Reynolds in the musical comedy Bundle of Joy. He played a serious role in the 1960 drama BUtterfield 8 with then-wife Elizabeth Taylor. His best friend was showman and producer Mike Todd, who died in a plane crash in 1958. Fisher's affair and subsequent marriage to Todd's famous widow caused a show business scandal because he and his first wife, also famous, had a very public divorce.

In 1960, he was dropped by RCA Victor and briefly recorded on his own label, Ramrod Records. He later recorded for Dot Records. During this time, he had the first commercial recording of "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof. This technically counts as the biggest standard Fisher can claim credit for introducing, although it is rarely associated with him. He then returned to RCA Victor and had a minor single hit in 1966 with the song Games That Lovers Play, which became the title of his best selling album. During the time Fisher was the most popular singer in America[citation needed], in the mid 1950s, singles, rather than albums, were the primary recording medium. His last album for RCA was an Al Jolson tribute, You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet. Eddie Fisher's last album was recorded around 1984 under the Bainbridge record label. Fisher tried to stop the album from being released but it showed up on the record stores shelves entitled After All. The album was produced by William J. O'Malley and arranged by Angelo DiPippo.

Fisher has performed in top concert halls all over the United States and headlined in major Las Vegas showrooms. He has headlined at the Palace Theater in New York City as well as London's Palladium.

Fisher has had five wives: actress Debbie Reynolds (married 1955-divorced 1959), actress Elizabeth Taylor (married 1959-divorced 1964), actress Connie Stevens (married 1967-divorced 1969), Terry Richard (married 1975- divorced 1976) and Betty Lin (married 1993). Betty Lin died on April 15, 2001. Fisher is the father of two children by Reynolds, actress Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher, and the father of two children by Stevens, actress Joely Fisher and actress Tricia Leigh Fisher.

In 1981, Fisher wrote an autobiography, Eddie: My Life, My Loves (ISBN 0-06-014907-8). He wrote another autobiography in 1999 titled Been There, Done That (ISBN 0-312-20972-X). The later book devotes little space to Fisher's singing career. When interviewed, Debbie Reynolds will characteristically say that she could understand being dumped "for the world's most beautiful woman (Taylor)", previously a close friend. Taylor and Reynolds later resumed their friendship, and mocked Fisher in their TV movie These Old Broads, wherein their characters ridiculed the ex-husband they shared, named "Freddie."

Fisher has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for Recording, at 6241 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for TV, at 1724 Vine Street.

Patti Austin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Background information

Born August 10, 1950
Origin Harlem, New York
Genre(s) R&B, Pop, Jazz
Occupation(s) Singer, Songwriter
Years active 1953-Present
Label(s) RCA (1953)
CTI (1976-1980)
Qwest / Warner Bros. (1981-1989)
GRP (1990-1995)
Concord Vista (1997-1998)
Intersound / Compendia (1998-1999)
Warner Bros. (2000-2001)
Playboy Jazz / Concord (2002)
Rendezvous (2007-Present)

Website www.pattiaustin.com

Patti Austin (born August 10, 1950[1], in Harlem, New York), to Edna and Gordon Austin, is an R&B and jazz music singer.








Career

She made her debut at the Apollo Theater at age four and had a contract with RCA Records when she was only five. Quincy Jones and Dinah Washington have proclaimed themselves as her godparents.

By the late 1960s Austin was a prolific session musician and commercial jingle singer. By the 1980s she was signed to Jones's Qwest Records and she began having hits. She charted twenty R&B songs between 1969 and 1991 and had success on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where she hit number one in 1981 with Do You Love Me? / The Genie.

The album containing that hit, Every Home Should Have One, also produced her biggest mainstream hit. Baby, Come To Me, a duet with James Ingram, peaked at number 73 on the Hot 100 in early 1982. After being featured as the love theme in a prominent storyline on the soap opera General Hospital, the song re-entered the pop chart in October and went to number one in February 1983. She would later team up again with Ingram for How Do You Keep The Music Playing.

She sang the duet It's the Falling in Love with Michael Jackson on his album Off The Wall. Other duet partners include George Benson (Moody's Mood for Love and Keep Your Dreams Alive), and Luther Vandross (I'm Gonna Miss You In The Morning).

In 1991, she recorded the duet You Who Brought Me Love with music legend Johnny Mathis which was received with critical acclaim. That same year she was invited to be a guest on a Johnny Mathis television special that was broadcast across North America.

Austin continued to have minor chart hits through the remainder of the 1980s, although no other singles reached the Hot 100 Top 40. She tours year round performing and she still releases new music.

In 2006, she led a new group of Raelettes for the album Ray Charles + Count Basie Orchestra = Genius². That group also featured veteran session singer Valerie Pinkston and members of the group Perry.

In 2007 during an interview promoting her latest recording Austin reflected how as a teenager she reluctantly attended one of Judy Garland's last concerts and the experience helped focus her career stating: "She (Judy Garland) ripped my heart out. I wanted to interpret a lyric like that, to present who I was at the moment through the lyric."[1]

Antonio Banderas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name José Antonio Domínguez Banderas
Born August 10, 1960
Málaga, Andalusia, Spain

José Antonio Domínguez Banderas (born August 10, 1960), better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor and singer who has starred in several high-profile Hollywood films including Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, Assassins, Interview with the Vampire, Mariachi sequels, Philadelphia, The Mask of Zorro, and the Shrek sequels.




Biography

Early life

Banderas was born in Málaga, Andalucia, southern Spain to José Domínguez, a policeman in the Guardia Civil, and Doña Ana Banderas, a teacher. He also has a brother, Francisco. Banderas was raised a Roman Catholic, but no longer follows the religion.[1]

Banderas initially wanted to play soccer professionally, but his dream ended when he broke his foot at age 14. As a young man, he traveled to Madrid, in order to make a career in the Spanish film industry.


Career in Spain

Banderas' career began at the age of 19, when he worked in small theaters during the Movida period. Banderas first gained wide attention through a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar, between 1982 and 1990. These included Laberinto de pasiones (1982), Matador (1986), La ley del deseo (1987), Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988), and ¡Átame! (1989). His breakthrough role was as the character "Ricky" in ¡Átame! (English-language title: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!), which was a minor success in the United States.


Career in Hollywood

Banderas subsequently moved to the U.S. and began appearing in American films; some of his earlier roles there included the 1992 film, The Mambo Kings, as well as a supporting role in the Oscar-winning 1993 film, Philadelphia. He appeared in several major Hollywood releases in 1995, including a starring role in the Robert Rodriguez-directed film, Desperado. In 1996, Banderas starred alongside Madonna in Evita, an adaptation of the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in which he played the narrator, Che, a role originally played on Broadway by Mandy Patinkin.

Banderas has also frequently collaborated with his Desperado director, Rodriguez, who cast Banderas in the Spy Kids film trilogy and the final installment in the "Mariachi" trilogy (which he appeared in with Johnny Depp), Once Upon A Time In Mexico. Banderas' sole credit as a director was the poorly-received Crazy in Alabama (1999), starring his wife Melanie Griffith. He also has received praise for being the first Spanish actor to portray the legendary Spanish masked swordsman, Zorro in The Mask of Zorro (1998) and its sequel, The Legend of Zorro (2005).

In 2003, Banderas returned to the musical genre, appearing to great acclaim in the Broadway revival of Maury Yeston's musical Nine, based on the film 8½, playing the prime role originated by the late Raul Julia. Banderas won both the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for best actor in a musical.[2] His performance is preserved on the Broadway cast recording released by PS Classics.

Banderas' voice role as Puss in Boots in Shrek 2 made the character popular on the family film circuit, and a spin-off movie starring his character is scheduled for release in 2008. His latest film, Take the Lead, a high-school movie in which he plays a real-life ballroom dancing teacher, opened on 7 April 2006. He received the L.A. Latino International Film Festival's "Gabi" Lifetime Achievement Award on October 14, 2006.[3]

Banderas also hosted Saturday Night Live's 600th episode (in season 31). The musical guest was Mary J. Blige.

Banderas' upcoming projects include starring as the title character in a new Broadway production of the 1995 film, Don Juan DeMarco,[2] as well as in the films Conquistador, a historical epic in which he will play Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés (filming begun in September 2006 in Spain, Mexico, and South America),[4] and Shrek the Third, as the voice of Puss In Boots.

Currently in the United States, a voice-over can be heard for an computer-animated bee in television commercials for Nasonex, an allergy medication.


Personal life

Banderas divorced his first wife, Ana Leza, and in 1996 married actress Melanie Griffith during the shooting of Two Much. They have a daughter, Stella del Carmen Banderas Griffith (also simply Stella Banderas), who appeared in the film Crazy in Alabama, in which Griffith starred and which Banderas directed.

Banderas has invested his movie earnings in business marketing Andalusian products, which he promotes in Spain and the USA. He is a long time supporter of the Real Madrid Football Club. While he speaks in his native Andalusian Spanish with his family and Spanish press, he switches to the Castilian pronunciation when playing non-Andalusian roles or when dubbing his Hollywood performances.

In Rancho Santa Margarita, California, the street Antonio Parkway coincidentally intersects with Avenida de las Banderas.[5]

Baptizing Drunks

A man was stumbling through the woods, totally drunk, when he came upon a preacher baptizing people in the river. He proceeded to walk into the water and bumped into the preacher. The preacher turned around and, though almost overcome by the smell of >> alcohol, asked the drunk, "Are you ready to find Jesus?" The Drunk answered, "Yes, I am." So the preacher grabbed the drunk and dunked him in the water. Then he pulled him up and asked him, "Brother have you found Jesus?" The drunk replied, "No, I haven't found Jesus." The preacher, shocked at the answer, dunked him into the water again, for a little longer. Then again, he pulled him out and asked, "Have you found Jesus my brother?" The drunk again answered, "No, I haven't found Jesus." By this time the preacher was at his wits end so he submerged the drunk once more, and held him down for about 30 seconds until he began kicking his arms and legs, whereupon he pulled him up. The preacher again asked the drunk, "For the love of God have you found Jesus?"
The drunk wiped his eyes and caught his breath and finally said to the preacher, "Are you sure this is where he fell in?"

Hey, hawkman. Great bio's Boston, and we all enjoy your funny stories. Perhaps the inebriated gentleman should have been sprinkled. <smile>

Speaking of sprinkles, PA is having problems with vicious storms, so I hope our Raggedy has her magic umbrella and can soar in with her famous photographs. Until then, here's a lovely song by Eddie Fisher.

We dedicate this to Mrs. hamburger.

They're not making the skies as blue this year - wish you were here
As blue as they used to when you were near - wish you were here
And the mornings don't seem as new
Brand-new as they did with you
Wish you were here, wish you were here, wish you were here

Someone's painting the leaves all wrong this year - wish you were here
And why did the birds change their song this year - wish you were here
They're not shining the stars as bright
They've stolen the joy from the night
Wish you were here, wish you were here, wish you were here

------ instrumental break ------

Someone's painting the leaves all wrong this year - wish you were here
Why did the birds change their song this year - wish you were here
They're not shining the stars as bright
They've stolen the joy from the night
Wish you were here, wish you were here, wish you were here

And it's still raining. But no more lightning - I hope.

Countess Maritza - that's the one, Letty, but I don't think we'll find the English lyrics on line.

So many BD Celebs today:

How about?

Jack Haley, Norma Shearer; Noah Beery, Jr. and Antonio Banderas.